1. Field of the Invention
2. Prior Art
The present invention relates to storage battery manufacturing machines and more particularly to an improved plate wrapping machine for storage batteries.
2. Prior Art
It is already proposed, for example, in a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 882,392 filed on Mar. 1, 1978 to obtain a wrapped plate by supplying separator material pulled from a supply reel so as to intersect rectangularly with a plate, folding the microporous separator into two to wrap the plate and sealing the side parts of the separator.
However, to further improve the performance and life of a storage battery, an embossed separator may be used in place of the flat microporous separator. In such a case, it will be substantially impossible to wind up a long embossed separator on a winding roller in advance. That is to say, when it is so wound up, the concavo-convex patterns of the embossed separator will interfere with each other and therefore will be hard to wind under a low tension. Also, when it is wound up on the roller under a high tension, the concavo-convex patterns of the embossed separator will be deformed and the separator will no longer be suitable for a storage battery. Even if it is to be wound on a winding roller, the result is a bulky mass due to the thickness caused by the concavo-convex patterns and the length of the embossed separator will have to be very short. As a result, the embossed separator wound on the winding roller is unwound in a short time and therefore will have to be constantly replenished. Because of such disadvantages, in such a case, complications arise and the battery plate making operating efficiency will be very low.